Writing for the Common Core

Writing, Language, Reading, and Speaking & Listening Activities Aligned to the Common Core

By

Darcy Pattison

Mims House, Little Rock, AR

2013 Darcy Pattison MimsHouse.com

Copyright 2013 by Darcy Pattison.

Permission is granted to reproduce activities in this book, in other than electronic form, for the purchasers own personal use in the classroom, provided that the copyright notice appears on each reproduction. Otherwise, no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Mims House.

Requests for permission, other than personal classroom use, should be addressed to:

Mims House

1309 S. Broadway

Little Rock, AR 72202

www.mimshouse.com

Permissions: Photo of Gold State Coach by Nigel Swales, used under Creative Commons license: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nigel321/6245697527

MimsHouse.com

ISBN: 978-1-62944-006-4

50 Common Core Writing

Printed in the United States of America

2013 Darcy Pattison MimsHouse.com

To my students, ages 5-95,

who have inspired me to work harder to help other write,

in the hope that the world will hear each voice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ORAL STORYTELLING9

USING STRONG WORDS15

ADDING DETAILS27

Ugly Writing45

PLANNING TO WRITE INFORMATIVE AND EXPLANATORY TEXTS53

PLANNING TO WRITE ARGUMENTS67

PLANNING FICTIONAL NARRATIVES79

FOLK TALES111

SAMPLE ANSWERS119

BIBLIOGRAPHY127

INTRODUCTION

I do two things: I write and I teach writing.

My writing encompasses childrens picture books, childrens novels, childrens nonfiction, blogs, and freelance articles about writing, teaching writing, and quilting. Ive taught writing for seven years at a local university and provided professional development classes for over twenty years to elementary through high school teachers. Ive taught writing to kids and Ive taught Novel Revision Retreats nationwide since 1999 to advanced adult writers.

With all this writing and all this teaching of writing, I have found that prewriting exercises help individuals become better writers. Prewriting is all the thinking and planning that goes on before someone actually sits down to write. Its the most neglected step of the writing process, but it has the potential to make the most difference in a students writing.

The activities in this book stimulate thought, reflection, memories, and research. They help students try out words and phrases and choose effective language. They help them organize and structure their work. They help students generate material while addressing both structure and language.

Strong prewriting activities alone cant guarantee strong results. But strong prewriting activities set the stage for strong first drafts, which have a jump start in the revision process. Good writing involves an intimate struggle with language and a passion to communicate effectively. By beginning this struggle in the prewriting stage, we focus a students attention not just on what is said, but also on how it is said.

In other words, we direct each student to pay attention to his or her own voice.

Darcy pattison 49

Darcy Pattison

Common Core State Standards

The Common Core State Standards (corestandards.org/the-standards) require students to write regularly on both long and short assignments. This book focuses on the Production of Writing:

CCRA.W.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

CCRA.W.5 Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

This book is mostly concerned with the writing process, especially the planning stage of the process.

Some exercises, though, also develop a students sensitivities to the use of language in writing effectively.

CCRA.L.3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

CCRA.L.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

CCRA.L.6 Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when encountering an unknown term important to comprehension or expression.

Other standards are woven into the lessons, with careful thought given to weaving together the reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language skills. For each lesson, we list the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards that apply. Teachers will need to drill down to the appropriate grade level for specific standards.

ORAL STORYTELLING

One of the hardest things for students to do is to choose an appropriate topic to write about. It is also often hard for them to know what to say about a topic after they have chosen it. Because Oral Storytelling is done orally, without committing words to paper, students are free to explore several topics. They will also be generating material to write about, without even realizing it.

Having students tell stories to friends is the most natural way to try out the power of prewriting. It also has the advantage of pulling in Speaking/Listening Common Core standards.

Teacher Instructions

Oral Storytelling

Rehearsing a story

Common Core Anchor Standards.

CCRA.SL.1 Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

CCRA.SL.6 Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

CCRA.W.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details and well-structured event sequences.

CCRA.W.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

CCRA.W.5 Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

CCRA.W.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

CCRA.L.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Overview. With Oral Storytelling, students team up to tell each other stories. Rehearsing a story orally helps them put things in order, select details and gauge audience reaction. They receive feedback before they begin to commit a story to writing.

Ultimately, students are going to tell five stories. The first three are different stories. Then they choose one of those three stories and tell it differently two more times. That story is the one they will ultimately write about.

Getting started. Go over the rules on the student instruction sheet for choosing a story to tell and give students a few minutes to choose their stories.

After everyone has a story, have students break into pairs for storytelling. (A group of three is okay for an odd number of participants, but be sure to adjust the times so that each person has enough time to talk.)

Telling the story. Next, students tell their stories to their partners. Each has a minute and a half to tell his or her story, with a verbal warning at the one-minute mark. Note: Adjust this time to the needs of your class. As students become more comfortable with oral storytelling, slowly increase the times listed.

Telling a second story.

Have students now choose a second story to tell. Students will probably groan, but thats okay. I always laugh and tell them that I know its hard, but they should just try. I encourage them by pointing out that all of them have many personal experiences in their lives to tell about. They always manage.

Students tell their second stories to their partners. Again, each has a minute and a half to tell the story, with a verbal warning at the one-minute mark.

Note: You might think its better to tell the students up front that they must come up with three ideas, but the psychology of finding and telling stories works better if you do each separately. The students need to commit to each story and tell it the best they can.

After they tell the first story, though, they are in a different position. They have now told a story to a real audience and seen how the audience reacted, what kinds of questions the audience had, where the audeince might have been confused. They can change in response to what they have experienced. They can use what they have just learned about audience.

I rarely stop and ask the students to discuss what they learned by telling a story to a real audience, but thats possible. Did it help to have someone listening? Did they notice where the story kept the listeners attention? Did they notice where the listener stopped paying attention? How can they change the way they tell the story to keep the listeners interest better?

Telling a third story. Have students now choose a third story to tell. They will probably need even more encouragement, but they can do it. Again, each student has a mi